The Blues' Category One status is worth a minimum £775,000 per year in funding from the Premier League's youth development pot.

The Blues have been granted a licence to operate a Category One academy for the next three years by the Professional Game Board Youth Group under the new youth development system, Elite Player Performance Plan, being introduced in England.

Twelve clubs applying for Category One status have been inspected so far.

Champions Manchester City, European champions Chelsea and Manchester United were the first clubs to achieve Category One status.

Now they have been joined by the Blues. But Newcastle, Blackburn and Crystal Palace have all missed out on the top grading.

All 92 Premier and Football League clubs are to have their Academies audited by an organisation which fulfils a similar role in Germany.

Academies are rated on four criteria:

Productivity rates

Coaching provisions

Quality of facilities

Education and welfare provisions.

Under the funding mechanism for the new plan, each Category One club is projected to receive a minimum £775,000 per year in Premier League funding from the youth development pot. Category Two clubs receive a minimum £480,000, Category Three £210,000 and Category Four £100,000

The Everton Academy underwent a stringent independent audit this autumn.

“When we try to attract players to the club, we are delighted to be able to say that we have Category One status,” he explained.

“We are one of the leading academies in the country and on top of that there is a pathway to the first team. That is a very important selling point for us because everyone can see the opportunities that talented young players are given here.

“Over the years we have had a lot of young players come through and been given a chance and that is not always the case at the big Premier League clubs. We wouldn’t like that to be undermined by the fact that we weren’t Category One.

“There’s no doubt that this is about what you are able to do to help the players make the progression into the first team. There is certainly no reason why players can’t break through in other categories of academy, but we want our players playing against the best. We want to have increased access to players. We want to have the freedom to recruit nationally if we choose to do so. So being a Category One academy is essential.”

Twenty-three clubs, 17 from last season's top flight and six from The Championship, applied for the very top status. Twelve clubs have been inspected so far.

Irvine continued: “We won’t take it for granted. We won’t assume we’ll produce players just because we are a Category One academy. That will still require a lot of hard work, and still be a very difficult job. But the biggest thing, as I say, is being able to have the opportunity to let the players see the pathway to get through to first-team football if they are good enough.